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Modesto City Council: Economic Development or Disaster?

Last Wednesday’s meeting of the Modesto Economic Development Committee highlighted a twenty-five year schism among Modesto leaders that is as much an effect of separate realities as it is of anything else. On the one hand we have those who think we are losing prime farmland at far too great a rate. They believe we […]

City Council: Joe Muratore’s Revealing Moment

Bruce Frohman’s insider’s view of the Modesto City Council (below) offers a sobering look at local politics. Last Tuesday’s Council meeting confirmed Frohman’s claims—developers rule—but there were at least two episodes that shed even more light on the City’s current and future political realities. The first revealing moment came just after Councilmember John Gunderson moved […]

Home Builders Control City Council, Harm Local Economy, by Bruce Frohman

Nobody at City Hall will ever admit it, but home builders control Modesto’s government. Campaign contributions help elect shills to the City Council. The shills take instruction from those who helped them get elected.  Some have even gotten text messages during Council meetings. Former Modesto Mayor Carmen Sabatino has battled special interest groups for years, but the groups’ abundance of money […]

Council to Marsh: Developers Rule!

Supporters of farmland preservation exulted when Garrad Marsh defeated Brad Hawn and Bill Zoslocki in last year’s race for Mayor of Modesto. Marsh’s victory was doubly sweet because it came after Mike Zagaris and George Petrulakis publicly endorsed Hawn. Zagaris and Petrulakis have long been associated with pro-growth policies that resist attempts to protect farmland […]

Valley Residents Facing Death by Dogma

Over a decade ago, when newly-elected Mayor Carmen Sabatino proposed a half cent sales tax for road maintenance and repair in Modesto he was met with a storm of protest. Despite the controversy, no one questioned the sorry state of our roads. The road tax has since been championed both by former Stanislaus County Supervisor […]

Inside The Modesto City Council: City Employees and CalPERS, by Bruce Frohman

News item from the Modesto Bee: Cost for the City of Modesto to leave CalPERS: $1 Billion plus.  A Rosy Prediction of Early Last Decade In the early 2000’s, the Modesto City Council reviewed an analysis of the fiscal integrity of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, otherwise known as CalPERS. The presentation was made […]

Kristin Olsen Leads the Parade Against Norquist Pledge

  Late last October, Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen renounced the Grover Norquist no-tax pledge. Since then, a growing group of Republican senators and congressman have done the same. Though current political realities likely influenced Olsen’s decision, she didn’t wait until after the election to announce her new outlook. Like others who have seen government’s problems up […]

Did the Congressman Take a Bribe? You Be the Judge, by Bruce Frohman

  Congressman Devin Nunes and Jeff Denham have both signed the Grover Norquist pledge. Both are against restoring the San Joaquin River, a project which would bring thousands of jobs to the San Joaquin Valley. Here, Bruce Frohman explores some of the dire consequences of signing the Norquist pledge. My Congressman signed a pledge to […]

Farm Bureau Says Water Sale Illegal But Bee Won't Tell the People

  July 31, the Stanislaus County Farm Bureau (SCFB) sent a letter to the Modesto Irrigation District (MID). Some ten pages in length, the letter voices strong objections to the proposed MID sale to San Francisco, and questions not only the MID’s legal authority to make the sale but also whether the MID actually has […]

Jeff Denham’s (Robo) Townhall Meeting, By Bruce Frohman

  On August 22nd, 2012, Congressman Jeff Denham held a district wide town hall meeting, as he called it. The meeting was conducted entirely by telephone. The Mechanism of the Meeting Prior to the “meeting,” a robocall was placed throughout the district. Those who answered the phone were invited to participate in the meeting by […]